Covid-19: The impact of lockdown on the dispensing of hospital drugs to outpatients

Introduction: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, France was under lockdown for the first time from March 17 to May 10, 2020.

Purpose of the research: The aim of this work is to study the impact of lockdown on outpatients’ visits to the hospital pharmacy to collect chronic medication, in order to highlight the pharmaceutical classes concerned and to assess whether a decrease in medication adherence could be observed.

Method: Retrospectively, using hospital dispensing traceability software, the dispensing of drugs during the eight weeks of lockdown was compared with that during the two eight-week periods before and after lockdown. Evolutions in the number of medicine lines dispensed and outpatient visits were analyzed over the three time periods, according to pharmaceutical classes. A specific analysis was performed between drugs only available at the hospital pharmacy and drugs available at both the community and hospital pharmacy.

Results: During lockdown, 67% of patients still came regularly, but a significant decrease in the average number of lines dispensed was observed. 15% of regular patients limited their visits during this period. Patients taking drugs available at both the community and hospital pharmacy were significantly more impacted than those taking drugs that could only be dispensed at the hospital pharmacy. On the other hand, age is not a factor associated with the restriction of visits.

Conclusions: Lockdown affected the visits to the hospital pharmacy of at least one in ten regular outpatients. Sending hospital drugs to community pharmacies and the help of home health care providers limited therapeutic disruptions.